Josh Clark pitched a zinger at an 2021 match-up against Emmanuel Christian. (Photo by Kathleen Galarza)
Golf scramble to benefit Yellow Springs baseball
- Published: September 7, 2024
The first annual Bulldog Golf Scramble is slated for Saturday, Oct. 5 at 2 p.m. at Locust Hills Golf Course in Springfield. The event is a fundraiser for the McKinney Middle School and YS High School baseball program.
The schools’ head baseball coach, Mitch Clark, stopped by the News office recently to help define what a golf scramble is for the uninitiated — particularly as he hopes the fundraising event will be the first of many. He described it as a kind of tournament play in which teams of four begin by teeing off at each of the course’s 18 holes.
“Then the group decides which ball is in the best place, and everybody plays from that place,” Clark said. “It’s fun, because serious golfers don’t have to take it too seriously, and folks who aren’t as experienced but want to have fun won’t feel intimidated.”
The cost for participation in the golf scramble is $300 per team or $75 per person, and includes greens fees, cart and dinner after golf, as well as eligibility for prizes.
Clark said the idea for the golf scramble was spurred by his players, who often asked if they could play golf together as a team. Combining play with fundraising seemed like a good way to hit two balls with one club, as it were.
“We pay for things like uniforms and equipment, and supplies like baseballs — we have to have new baseballs for every game, and they can be costly,” he said. “So with this, we can play a little golf and raise some money, too.”
The schools’ baseball teams continue to practice, particularly in the off-season, in a training facility established last year in donated space at Millworks. Clark said having the space thus far has been “amazing.”
“We had been practicing in the gym, but we were sharing that space with a lot of other groups, and we had to have three separate practices because it was such a small space,” he said. “At Millworks, the space is bigger and the capabilities are immensely better.”
The Millworks space allows the varsity team — as well as the middle school and junior varsity teams, which were established last year — to train together. With six batting cages, players can be broken up into groups based on their sizes and/or abilities, facilitating an environment where everyone can practice safely at the appropriate level. The facility also helps foster relationships, Clark said, between older and younger players.
“They get along amazingly well, and it’s an opportunity for these seniors to lead the seventh and eighth graders who look up to them,” he said.
Clark has coached in the schools’ baseball program for 13 years, and this year marks his sixth as head coach. Within that time, he said he and his fellow coaches have worked and watched as the program has grown by “leaps and bounds.”
He recalled when, 13 years ago, his eldest son wanted to join the baseball team and asked Clark to accompany him to a team meeting.
“We went over to the high school, and I said, ‘Where is everybody?’” Clark said. “I talked to the athletic director at the time and said, ‘Nobody’s here,’ and he said, ‘Yeah — just you.’”
At that point, Clark said, he told his son that if he’d round up his friends to play on the team, Clark would help put a team together — and that’s what they did. He found other folks to coach, and served as an assistant coach himself for the next several years.
“That’s where we started, with not enough kids to play, and sometimes pulling people out of the stands to finish a game,” he said. “Now we have a lot — last year, we had, I think, 72 kids come out for the team.”
Clark said he didn’t take on the responsibility of head coach until after he retired as chief of development for the US Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Development, he said, was the focus of both his academic study and his career — and it’s a foundational principle he’s brought to the baseball program, too. Before establishing the middle school and JV teams two years ago, he said, kids interested in baseball had a gap of several years after Little League and before school play. Closing that gap, he said, has been a way to keep young players in the mix.
“I really focus on development, so we’ve now partnered with the Little League to do camps and clinics,” Clark said. “The more we do that, the more fun they have and the longer they’ll stay with it, and the better they’ll be. And now we have the middle school team for them to join, and the JV. By the time they’re varsity, they’re ready to go.”
He added that, to his mind, there’s “no question” that, even within the span of two years, there have been positive results from those development efforts.
“[The baseball program] is helping players stay with their friends, it’s helping them develop,” Clark said. “It’s helping our record, sure — which is important, but it’s not the most important thing. But when you keep them together and have them play together, it means so much.”
To register for the first annual BulldogBaseball Scramble, go to bit.ly/YSGolfScramble24. For those who are unable to attend, but would still like to donate to the baseball program, go to bit.ly/YSHSAthleticBoostersFund; donors are asked to specify that donations are for the baseball program.
Those interested in sponsoring a hole on the course during the scramble are asked to contact Clark at 937-469-5145.
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